GROVEPORT, Ohio - What started as a small personal collection of Civil War artifacts in the basement of the U.S. Army veteran, has grown to a museum bursting at the seams with stories of America's military past - and it's still growing.
Motts Military Museum, Groveport, OH, founded in 1987, serves to educate the public on the importance of America's military history from the Colonial era to current global conflicts.
"This is a personal museum, and these are personal stories" said Warren E. Motts, the founder and museum director.
Motts has expertly curated numerous exhibits, including a display celebrating the Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of African American military pilots trained in aerial combat who served in World War II. He recounts a personal friendship with Captain Harold Sawyer, one of the Airmen and whose personal items are featured in the exhibit.
Harold was very active during the early years of our museum and was one of our long-time board members, said Motts.
The museum building currently holds about one third of its total number of artifacts, most of them in storage, and thirteen of them on loan to national museums. Motts hopes to break ground on a major expansion project this summer, providing a home for the abundance of stories yet to be told.
Motts, who can personally recount the story and face behind each artifact in the museum dated after World War I, is proud to share the 20-year expansion plan of the museum with visitors.
The new museum campus will be home to the world's second largest collection of 9/11 artifacts from both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the nation's second largest collection of Holocaust artifacts.
"We have the exhibits and the plans," said Motts, "but we need the funds and the resources."
Motts and his all-volunteer team are slated to host several events this summer and fall to raise funds to support the museum, including a brick dedication ceremony on August 8 and an iHeartRadio-funded car show on September 13.
Date Taken: | 02.08.2020 |
Date Posted: | 02.09.2020 16:22 |
Story ID: | 362328 |
Location: | WHITEHALL, OHIO, US |
Web Views: | 128 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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